The characteristics and health service utilization of adolescents with low back pain in a suburban pediatric health care system: analysis of health records data.

BACKGROUND

Low back pain (LBP) is increasingly common among adolescents, yet little is known about the healthcare utilization in this population. We aimed to describe the characteristics and treatment patterns of adolescents with LBP presenting to a specialized comprehensive pediatric health system.

METHODS

This retrospective single-arm cohort design analyzed de-identified data from a suburban healthcare system. Using the TriNetX analytics platform, we queried electronic health records for adolescents aged 12-18 years with a new diagnosis of LBP between 2018 through 2022 without serious pathology such as cancer or infection. Key variables included baseline patient demographics, comorbidities, initial care setting, and the proportion and count of use of broad categories of healthcare services over a one-year follow-up window.

RESULTS

Our query identified 6,350 adolescents with LBP (mean age [standard deviation] of 14.8 [1.8] years; 60.6% female). The most common initial setting was ambulatory (80.5%). Services received by patients included non-opioid medication (38.8%), non-pharmacological conservative care (26.1%), diagnostic imaging (29.4%), opioids (11.3%), surgery (0.3%), and interventional injection therapies (≤ 0.2%).

CONCLUSION

Among adolescents with newly diagnosed LBP from a specialized comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in Wisconsin from 2018 to 2022, 38.8% were prescribed non-opioid medications, 29.4% obtained diagnostic imaging, 26.1% had non-pharmacological conservative care, and 11.3% were prescribed opioids. Future studies should explore these findings in other care settings and examine optimal care pathways and associated clinical outcomes.